I added Unattached to my Artfully Living List…

• Abiding in Christ
• Rejoicing 
• Thankful
• Focused
• Unattached
• Loving
• Life-giving
• Yielded

…because I’ve been working on what Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, called “Indifference.” Since “indifference” doesn’t start with the “u” I needed, I’m calling it “unattached.” Ignatius defined it as:

Being detached enough from things, people, or experiences to be able either to take them up or to leave them aside, depending on whether they help us to “to praise, reverence, and serve God” (Spiritual Exercises 23). 

I like to use the Apostle Paul as an example:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4.11 – 13, ESV)

A friend pointed me to Paul’s counsel to the Corinthians as another example of Unattached:

This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. (1 Corinthians 7.29 – 31, ESV)

This move has been a good time to practice this discipline. For one of our granddaughters, we’re leaving the only house she’s ever associated with us. She’s making a documentary of her experience with the house, and she asked me, “How do you feel about leaving this house?” I had to tell her, “It’s just a house. We’ll create a home in the next house where you will be welcome.”

When I wrote about giving away MY childhood rocking chair, a blog reader responded, partly in jest because of my advanced age:

I can’t believe you gave away YOUR childhood rocker!! That’s an antique!!!

But it’s not hard to give something away if (1) you don’t need it, (2), you’re unattached to it (our theme), and (3) you have no place to put it!

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6.19 – 21, ESV)